Ginger's Ghost
by e5r9i9k2a1
Summary: What if Ginger had taken the Scholarship at Avalanche Arts Academy? Please don't flame me it's my first fic on this site.
1. Chapter 1

Ginger's Ghost.

It had been three years since Ginger had taken the scholarship at Avalanche Arts Academy. Now she was finally going home again. She had convinced herself that she didn't miss but just like Jennifer's Ghost, returning home after all this time could bring all the old feelings back.

Ginger let out a sigh. She wondered how everyone would react to her finally coming home after all this time. Did anyone miss her? Did they still think about her? Did she still belong there? Did her friends Macie, Dodie, and Courtney still love her? Did her family? Did Darren? Ginger sighed again. She would never forget that moment at the train station when Darren told her he loved her. When they had kissed for the very first time. Her first kiss. She wondered, did she hurt him when she had taken the scholarship? Did she hurt everyone? She wondered if she had broken anybody's heart. She wondered if she did would they forgive her? She supposed she could have refused the scholarship like everyone wanted her to. But she had promised that they would all keep in touch and visit often. And they did at first. But then they had gotten less frequent. And then they had pretty much stopped unless someone informed her of big news. Like her mother's second marriage. She had fallen in love with her doctor friend. Bob was it? Or Nick? She couldn't remember. She had sent them a card but the only reply had been a polite thank you.

She wondered about a lot of things. Had her brother Carl changed his strange ways? Were he and Noelle still in love? Did they wear anything different? Had Miranda and Mipsy turned nice? They had been the ones who had gotten the academy to give her the scholarship. Mipsy's uncle was chairman of the board and she and Miranda had paid Mipsy's cousin Thea to help them to get the board to give her the scholarship. They had wanted more attention from Courtney. And it had worked. Ginger wondered if Courtney still missed her. Dodie and Macie had told her that when she went away Courtney had gone on like she and Ginger were best friends. She wondered if she still did that. Probably not as they did not contact each other nearly as much as they used to. Ginger sighed for a third time and she decided to take a nap as she listened to one of her favorite songs.

_I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd you're gonna hear my voice as I shout it loud,_

_It's my life! And it's now or never,_

_I'm not gonna live forever._

_I just wanna live while I'm alive,_

_It's my life!_


	2. Chapter 2

Ginger woke up as the train reached the station. She glanced out the window to see if anyone had actually come to greet her but saw no one at first glance. She got off the train with a sigh wondering if she would see anyone on her way. And she did see them. And she also saw herself. Just as she wondered, all the old feelings and memories did come back. She felt tears well up in her eyes and let them fall.

"Oh, Ginger!" she heard someone shout.

"N-Noelle?" Ginger stammered a bit. "You look great!" she said the first thing that came to mind.

Noelle was wearing a blue tank top and green shorts with blue sneakers and her hair in a ponytail. "Yup!" she said. "So do you! It's been quite a while hasn't it?"

"Yeah, it really has…" sighed Ginger.

If Noelle noticed the older girl's sigh – which she probably had as Ginger had heard that she was very perceptive – she said nothing about it.

"Love your hair!" she said.

"Um, thanks." Said Ginger.

Ginger's hair had grown much longer and part of Ginger's hair was dyed a different color every day or week. It was currently dyed a bluish black color and Ginger sometimes considered dying the rest of her hair but hadn't actually done it.

"So… how's everything?" Ginger asked.

"Well, nothing extremely out of the ordinary has happened." Said Noelle. "Carl made something or other that attracted rats to the school so school's out for a while."

"So I guess you guys haven't lost your weirdness then." Said Ginger smiling a bit.

"Surely you didn't actually expect us to?" said Noelle returning Ginger's smile.

"Of course not." Ginger laughed a little. "So, how's everyone else? Where are they?"

"I thought they would've come to greet you by now." Said Noelle.

"Well maybe we should wait a while then." Said Ginger.

"Yeah, I guess they might be a little late." Said Noelle and they sat down on a bench.

"So are you and Carl still together?" asked Ginger.

"Meh." Noelle shrugged. "I guess you could say that but it's kind of on and off sometimes."

"But still, that's better than nothing right?" asked Ginger.

"I guess so." Said Noelle. "We might see other people sometimes though."

Ginger nodded. "So… how's everyone else?" she asked.

"Well, most of them are taking acting or art or creative writing or singing classes I think." Said Noelle. "I'm not really sure about anyone's love life though. Everybody's probably gone out with a lot of people but I'm not 1000 sure who's going steady with whom. Sorry."

"Uhm, that's okay." Said Ginger blushing a bit.

"Geez what is taking them so long?" said Noelle.

"Maybe they're not coming." said Ginger quietly and more to herself.

"Why wouldn't they come?" asked Noelle.

"Well… I've been gone for so long… maybe they've moved on by now." Said Ginger.

"I don't think so." Said Noelle. "Weren't you guys BFFs? If that's so, then there's no way you could forget about each other."

"Then how come no one came?" asked Ginger, surprising herself at how easy she could hide her tears.

"Well we'll just have to go find them and ask them won't we?" said Noelle. "Come on don't cry cheer up."

Ginger sniffed. "Okay." She said. "But wouldn't it be easier to call them?"

"Oh." Said Noelle, checking her cell phone. "Um, my cell phone doesn't have very many minutes left." She blushed slightly. "And besides, this a face-to-face thing."

"Okay." Said Ginger. "So where should we look?"

"The mall or sometimes the library is usually pretty good." Said Noelle. "I think most of them work there. Let's go!"

"Okay." Ginger smiled a little, cheered up a bit.

#$&()+/--

"Oh, I see." Ginger and Noelle sighed. "Well, looks like no one's at the convenience store." They said in unison.

They laughed a little at that. "Of course they're not." Sighed Ginger.

"Well, at least we got our exercise." Said Noelle.

"I guess you've got a point there." Said Ginger, smiling a bit. She sighed a little. "So where should we look now?"

"Well, both the library and the mall are closest." Said Noelle.

"I kind of miss the library." Said Ginger. "I don't suppose it's changed?"

"Nope." Said Noelle. "Some things never do I guess. On with the trek!"

" 'On with the trek'?" asked Ginger.

"Well we're trekking all over town." Said Noelle.

"You've got a point again." Said Ginger. "On with the trek!" they said in unison.

!#$&()-+/-

"No one here either huh?" sighed Ginger.

They had just reached the library and no one had answered them after they rang the bell a few times.

"Well, it's good to see the old place again." Said Ginger. "I'm kind of glad it hasn't changed."

The library was still a pretty and old building that smelled of violets and the only thing that had really changed was that it now had a section for manga and anime/manga novels and had added some anime and older cartoons and TV shows in the DVD/video section.

"What do you say we take a breather here for a while?" asked Ginger. "I'd like to check out the manga and anime."

"Sure!" said Noelle. "Me too." The younger girl headed off to the anime and Ginger followed.

"Oh, they've got all of Full Metal Alchemist and Fruits Basket." Said Ginger happily. "Oh, and .hack//, .hack// Roots and Haibaine Renmei too. And pretty much all of Studio Ghibli's works. And I've never seen Haibaine Renmei or all of .hack// Roots or all of Studio Ghibli's works…"

"Oh! Uh-I'm sorry." Said Ginger she bumped into someone. She was slightly startled at who it was though.

"M-Miranda? Courtney? Mipsy?" she said, taken aback.

"F-Fout…ley?" said Miranda looking quite surprised and even slightly shocked.

"…Oh, Ginger!?" exclaimed Courtney suddenly, after a period of slightly awkward silence, as if she hadn't seen her. "Um, long time no see!" she twirled her hair- Ginger noticed that the girls had dyed their hair in a fashion similar to how Ginger had her hair- and the girl seemed to be trying to make some sort of conversation or small talk.

"Yeah, it's been a long time." Said Ginger also twirling her hair.

"…So um, uh…" they all started at the same time, causing another period of silence.

"Haibaine Renmei, Full Metal Alchemist, Fruits Basket, and .hack// huh?" said Miranda.

""We've become quite a fan of those kind of genres." Mipsy was also trying to make some conversation while examining her nails.

"Miranda's also become quite the Evanescence otaku right?" Noelle was standing unnoticed behind them and they all jumped.

"Oh geez, don't do that!" Miranda hissed. "But yeah, I am an otaku for Evanescence and Linkin Park. I got these guys hooked too. Anyway," she sighed, checking her watch. "We've gotta get to the mall. You guys can come if you want." She threw a quick glance to Ginger and Noelle.

"Okay." Said Ginger. "I'd like to see the mall again too. Do you mind Noelle?"

"Nah." Said Noelle. "We were going to go there after we checked here remember?"

"Oh, right." Said Ginger. "On with the trek!"

Miranda gave of slightly weirded out look at that but there seemed to be a very faint hint of amusement.

"Everyday is a new adventure isn't it?" said Ginger upon seeing Miranda's expression.

Miranda turned away quickly to hide her slight amusement.

!#$&()-+/-

"As you can see Sam Goody has been updated like the library but nothing else has really changed that much." Said Mipsy.

"Cool." Said Ginger. "Um, anybody know where Dodie, Macie, Darren, Mom, and/or Carl are?"

"Um, at least half of them should be around here somewhere." Said Courtney. "We could hang around the smoothie place for a while. They usually hang out there and besides we're getting thirsty."

"Okay. I'm getting thirsty too." Said Ginger. "That okay with you Noelle?"

"Sure." Said Noelle. "I was just about to say that I was getting thirsty."

"Ah! Was that them?" said Ginger, spotting some people in the crowd."

"Eh. If it was, they might be at least heading in the direction of the smoothie place. And even if they're not, I'm going anyway. I'm thirsty."

"Okay." Said Ginger. As much as she wanted to see everyone she was thirsty too.

Miranda sighed when they got there. "Look Foutley, about all this…" She sighed again and she seemed to be having some difficulty in whatever it was she was trying to say.

"What?" said Ginger

"Mipsy and I are sorry if it's getting to you or anything okay?" she said quickly.

"W-What?" said Ginger, quite surprised.

Miranda sighed again. "It's just that, Courtney was our first real friend you know? We were both kinda loners before we met and I was pretty depressed all the time. And, having a friend made it hurt a little less. That's why we acted the way we did. It truly wasn't personal or anything like that, we just, didn't want people to take her away from us." Miranda never kept her eyes on Ginger for more than a few seconds during her confession.

"Miranda…" said Ginger, at a loss for words. It really did make a lot of sense.

"So I guess what we're trying to say is um, ugh, I've never really done this before," Miranda looked a little sheepish. "Um, truce?"

Ginger smiled at her. "Truce." They shook on it and Miranda had a small smile on her face.


End file.
